Mary Leads the Priest to Service

The presence of Mary in the worship of the Church introduces us to a spirituality of service. 

It is often repeated that “the Church is a servant and poor Church, that authority is service”.

Yet the chief temptation of the priest down through the ages has perhaps been to follow the models of a society subject to sin, which sees authority as domination, rather than the model of Christ, who is shepherd and servant. 

An evolution can be observed in this regard: in the Middle Ages, the priest was fully immersed in the people of God, to the point of imitating them in vice and ignorance. After the Council of Trent, the dignity of the presbyter and his power were recalled, whereby the presbyter gradually became the reverend, that is, the one who is to be revered, but less readily the one who is to serve.

And yet, precisely in the time of the Catholic Reformation, the idea of the dignity of the priest was joined to the vow of Marian slavery of all the members of the Church. Little by little, however, this sense of service was lost, and today we need to recover it. The Virgin Mary, who stands out among “the poor” [anawim] of the Lord of the Old Testament, introduces precisely this mentality of service. Twice she called herself the handmaid of the Lord (Lk 1:38, 48); indeed, she is the only woman in the New Testament who is called this.

This service is not something that demeans the personality, nor a deprivation of personality, as it may seem in light of the cultural meaning in vogue today. In Sacred Scripture, to be a servant of God means to have the honor of taking part in the plan of salvation with a particular mission. For precisely this reason Mary is the blessed one: whereas a curse would cut her off from the people of God and from the inheritance of the promises, Mary’s blessing places her within the context of the history of salvation as a co-worker.

In the handmaid of the Lord the most important elements of the spirituality of service converge: call or election, mission, response. Mary is chosen by God on the initiative of His love; therefore the priest cannot take up his task without the call of the handmaid of the Lord. Just as the divine motherhood does not prevent Mary from calling herself the handmaid of the Lord, so the distinction between the faithful and ministerial priests does not raise the latter to the rank of rulers (cf. 1 Pet 5:3 “do not act as lords over those entrusted to you, but as examples to the flock”), but appoints them to the service of the faith of the elect (cf. Titus 1:1 “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness”).

Above all, Mary shows the priest the implications of the spirituality of service:

• absolute availability, or the need for a total yes to God. 

• the radical poverty of one who knows himself to be an unprofitable servant, working in the pure goodness of the Lord (cf. Lk 17:10 “so you also, when you have done all that you are commanded, say: We are unprofitable servants, because we have done only what we ought to have done”). 

• suffering and total self-denial in order to enter into the interests of the Lord (Lk 12:37 “blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find watching! Truly I say to you, he will gird himself, and have them sit at table, and, coming near, will serve them”. Acts 20:19 “I served the Lord with all humility and with tears, being severely tried by the plots of the Jews”). 

• collaboration, or the commitment of the resources of one’s own being to the assigned service.

The divine motherhood appears as a charism, that is, a gift for service, or rather, the fundamental service rendered to the Church.

To explore the theme of Mary and the priesthood more deeply, see the encyclical Redemptoris Mater of John Paul II, on Mary as Mother of the Church and model of service.

Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.